Are you considering building a custom home for the first time? Building your home from the ground up can be an incredibly rewarding experience. You can tailor your home to meet your needs both now and in the future. But if you have ever watched any home building show, you’ve seen it can also be a stressful and time-consuming process. For many, the biggest obstacle to making this decision is understanding how the process works.

Building a home does not have to be a grueling process. At Wausau Homes, we believe you deserve to have the home of your dreams, and we’ve made the process easier for more than 200,000 families and counting.

If you’ve never built a custom home, here are a few of our top tips you should consider, from the people who build custom homes every day.

Have A Plan, For Today And Tomorrow

Insert your favorite quote on having a plan here.

• “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin
• “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra
• “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” – John F. Kennedy
• “A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.” – Confucius

You get the point. No matter how cliche it may sound, planning is important, and that is especially true in the construction process.

Your house may need to expand and contract along with the seasons of your life. Perhaps you’re thinking about growing your family in the immediate future or perhaps your kids are about to make their way off to college. Maybe those kids going off to college are going to return someday to land before they truly launch. Or you might have aging parents you want to bring in as they become more dependent for care.

At Wausau Homes, we have more than 150 floor plans to serve as a starting point in your home building journey. You can see the top 10 most popular Wausau Homes floor plans many of our clients used over the years. We can either customize those plans or work with you on a plan of your own. As you think about the days to come and how your home may need to adjust for your family over the years, you will be able to plan for life ahead.

Build Your Financial House Before Your Brick And Mortar House

No one likes to struggle through the financing for building a new home. It may be one of the most stressful aspects of building a new home. There are many questions associated with financing a new home.

• How much money will we need for a down payment?
• Will our credit score be high enough to secure a good interest rate?
• Will we be able to afford our monthly mortgage?

It’s not so much the questions that bring the stress, but the uncertainty of the answers. Even if you get answers, can they be trusted?

Building a new custom home is the biggest investment a family can make and having a trusted mortgage lender can help take the stress out of the finance process. Our In-House Wausau Homes Finance Team is dedicated to providing convenient and easy to understand mortgage options that focus on the unique needs of your family. You will go through the process with our team knowing a firm price on exactly what you will pay before you  even sign a contract.

Why run yourself ragged trying to coordinate between home builders, contractors, inspectors, and lenders? Wausau Homes and our Finance Team make your mortgage simple by bundling the entire new home construction process under one roof.

Outdoor Living That Lets You Live Outdoors

Who says everything has to be indoors? Much of life can be lived outside, especially when the weather permits. Create a welcoming environment perfect for entertaining the guests and durable enough for the kids and pets to run around.

Your yard is not meant to be a museum for onlookers. Put it to use! Your exterior should be thought of as an extension to your house’s living space. Add a front porch, back deck, or dream patio to accommodate your favorite activities with family and friends.

We can help you create an outdoor kitchen space to cook for your crew as they watch the latest sporting event at your outdoor bar with built-in television. Perhaps you have always wanted an outdoor shower and transitional space to clean off after a few laps in the pool. Design a spot for a dog washing station with hot and cold water options to save your interior bathrooms the hassle and mess. A seating area with a fire pit roasting s’mores and drinking hot chocolate allows you to enjoy endless summer evenings, creating special memories under a starry sky and in the fresh air.

This Is The Time To Get What You Want

You are only limited by the size of your budget and imagination. While the Rolling Stones would sing, “You can’t always get what you want,” we believe you can. You are building a home from scratch and we are here to make the process simple to help your dreams become a reality. What a great opportunity to customize every detail and see a 3D rendering before it’s even built. Our independent Wausau Homes builders can help you stretch your budget and figure out the best ways to maximize what you have to work with and build a home you love.

Is the laundry room in the best place? Do you want all of the bedrooms located together, or would you prefer your master suite to have some space away from the kids? Do you have a daughter who doesn’t want to share a bathroom with her younger brothers? And do they all need some built-in space for distance learning?

With so many transitions in the workspace environment over the past year, many are looking at how home design is changing. Now that many workers find themselves officially remote, you may want to include a home office with enough outlets for your desktop, a place to charge laptops, tablets, and phones. Throw in an extra outlet for your in-office espresso machine! Why not! You may also want outlets that have USB ports installed, so you can charge your electronics without tearing up the rest of your home searching for the wall adapter. Taking some time to plan every detail of your home design, like electrical outlets can make living life in your home a lot easier later on.

Every family is unique and therefore has unique needs. That isn’t a problem for Wausau Homes. Our expert builders thrive on working with you to design a perfect home customized for the needs of your family for today, tomorrow and the years to come. We love to fulfill our commitment to building your home, your way.

Just when we say we’ve seen it all, we get the challenge to create something new to give you exactly what you want. This is the time to ask. This is the time to get what you want.

The Wausau Homes Plan

Our independent Wausau Homes Builders understand that homebuilding is a complex process and that everyone’s needs are different. You’ll sit down with your builder in one of our state-of-the-art design studios and discuss your budget, family size, desired square footage, and current home likes and dislikes. They’ll work closely with you to design your home from the inside out, selecting everything from floor plan features, to fixtures and finishes.

With our advanced home building software, energy-efficient building process, quick on-site home construction, and fine-tuned home interiors, your first day in your new home will be nothing short of amazing. We’ll even throw a housewarming party for you to celebrate!

Did you find this custom home guide useful? Put it to work with our Wausau Homes professionals. Find a builder near you.